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Can we really trust car dealers for service and repairs?

If you drive a car on a contract hire or car lease agreement you may well have a servicing and repair plan built into your contract. This provides fixed price servicing and gives you the peace of mind that your car will be regularly checked over and maintained.

But, how satisfied are you with the quality of service from your dealer? The latest research from the Auto Express Driver Power survey has found that it is luxury brands – often the first choice for car leasing customers – that perform best with drivers. Keep reading to find out which brands motorists are most satisfied with…

Lexus drivers are the most satisfied with their dealer’s servicing

The Auto Express Driver Power survey features feedback from over 12,000 UK car owners and shows that the overall servicing/maintenance satisfaction index stands at 86.1 per cent, up by one percentage point on the previous year.

The latest quarterly dealer satisfaction scores from the survey show that drivers of luxury car brands are, on the whole, more satisfied with the servicing and repair experience they receive from dealers.

Lexus drivers were the most satisfied with their dealer’s servicing experience, securing a 90.2 per cent satisfaction rating, despite the score declining over the past year. Porsche climbed from 7th in the table to second, and saw satisfaction scores for servicing & repair increase to 89.8 per cent.

Porsche dealers can also take credit for receiving highest satisfaction scores from customers when purchasing the vehicle, in addition to having the most loyal customer base of all brands.

Honda’s dealer satisfaction ratings remained stable from the previous quarter although the brand dropped one position to 3rd. Jaguar’s satisfaction ratings continued to increase and the luxury brand moved up to 4th. Subaru fell one place this quarter, to 5th, to round off the top five.

Auto Express reported that other notable movements this quarter included Dacia, coming in as a new entrant at a commendable 8th position; while Peugeot and Alfa Romeo each experienced rising overall scores of 2.5 percentage points, moving from 23rd to 14th and 26th to 18th respectively.

Steve Fowler, Editor-in-Chief of Auto Express, commented “Every manufacturer has been targeting customer satisfaction as an area for improvement and differentiation, but few are making a real difference. Until recently, Porsche dealers had a reputation for indifferent attitudes towards customers, but clearly much has been done to change that and the turnaround has been swift and sizeable.”

Nissan suffered the largest quarter on quarter decrease in satisfaction levels and fell nine places to 22nd. Ford, BMW and Mercedes dealers were also among those to experience declining satisfaction scores this quarter, with some also showing decreases on the previous year.

Drivers most satisfied with the technical knowledge of their dealer

The Auto Express survey found that ‘technical knowledge’ was the most improved (and highest scoring) category as rated by car owners, registering 90.7 per cent on the satisfaction index. This is up by over 4 percentage points on the previous year and, according to the magazine, ‘is testament to the focus that brands have given to this area.’

‘Standard of workmanship’ was rated as the most important issue for owners when it comes to servicing and repair work, with ‘value for money’ the fourth most important factor.

While franchised car dealers are performing better than a year ago, almost one in five car owners who purchased their vehicle from a franchised dealer still goes to an independent garage for servicing and/or repair work. Overall, franchised dealer satisfaction scores are still only slightly ahead of those for independent garages.

About David Petherick

David Petherick speaks Russian and Spanish, lives in Edinburgh, and drives a Peugeot 308. He is a keen Formula 1 follower and blogs a race preview before each race. He was cited by the BBC as the world's first Digital Biographer and was formerly UK Editor at The Next Web.

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